Tuesday, 5 June 2012

We'll start this today with Laurent Koscielny who has been doing his best to out do Per Mertesacker when it comes to tapping up players. We all know the big defender had a hand in the signing of Lukas Podolski, now Koscielny is trying to out do his team mate by tapping up not just one but two French international colleagues.

Lolo has been spotted with striker Olivier Giroud at the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros. And the Montpellier has already said he'll decide his future after the European Championships with Arsenal being one of his destinations.

"Yann is a player with enormous quality. He is strong on the ball and has great vision. He can triumph in an important competition like the Premier League.

"Would he be good at Arsenal? Of course.

"I will try to convince him to come when we are together at the Euros."

It's good to see that Koscielny is happy enough at Arsenal to recommend the club to his international team mates. I'm glad he wants to be playing alongside the best and Giroud and M'Vila would certainly add some depth to our squad.

Elsewhere midfielder Oguzhan Ozyakup, described once as the "new Cesc", is joining Turkish side Besiktas for £570,000, in a deal which includes a 25 per cent sell-on clause. It's always sad to see youngsters who have been on the fringes of the first team move on without getting an opportunity.

But Ozkayup has got so many players in front of him he's probably made the best decision in terms of his long term career. He needs to start breaking into the first team and that's not going to happen at Arsenal any time soon.

Today we're again linked with a move for Argentine midfielder Lucas Biglia. The £8million-rated Anderlecht player has been on our radar and Real Madrid are watching him as well. I would have thought he is only a back-up option though, in case for what ever reason we aren't able to sign M'Vila as they play in the same position.

There is more talk about Robin van Persie's future after he described Juventus as a “great team”. Hardly solid evidence that he'd sign for them and of course if he's looking to drum up interest from other clubs he's not going to knock back advances from one of Europe's great clubs even if he doesn't want to sign for them.

And finally for today Tomas Rosicky has been linked with a move to Turkish side Eskisehirspor by the Daily Mail. Can't really see it happening after he signed a new deal with Arsenal in January.